Thursday, July 23, 2015

Nahanton Park was very pretty this morning! It was hard to drag myself away....

This Blue-gray Gnatcatcher was working a cherry tree near the lower gardens.

There were at least four Ruby-throated Hummingbirds around the back of the upper garden, including this cooperative male.

The Nahanton pond is on of the best places in eastern Massachusetts for Solitary Sandpipers. Here's one of four that were there this morning. A couple of them made repeated graceful loops around the pond, alighting briefly and taking flight again.

This Silver-spotted Skipper was dining on a Queen Anne's Lace in the upper field.

Sunday, July 19, 2015

I walked through Nahanton Park early this morning, for the first time since the end of May. Quite a bit of activity! I think a number of species stage here in post-breeding dispersal. There were a lot of Common Yellowthroats, Yellow-shafted Flickers, and Black-capped Chicadees. On the river there was a row of eleven Wood Ducks, in eclipse plumage.

And a hundred yards into the forest from the parking lot off Winchester St, a ruckus of Blue Jays led me to this Great Horned Owl.

As I entered the lower gardens via the path from the parking lot, I got dive-bombed by a tree swallow who felt like I was a little too close to her nest box! There were lots of robins, a couple of male downy woodpeckers, yellow warbler, catbirds, red-winged blackbirds, orioles, cardinals, flickers and song sparrows. A seagull flew overhead.

On the way to the upper gardens, the white mulberry tree was fruiting. There were many of the same birds as the lower, but also included a family of house wrens, an Eastern phoebe and this beautiful fellow that I finally saw after listening to his song for quite a while. There he was in all his glorious splendor!

The soccer field/river area had a warbling vireo (found the nest), yellow warblers, a pee wee calling from the woods and cowbirds.

Nahanton Park

Nahanton Park is a very special wildlife area. In a relatively small space, there are several different habitats - the river, a pond, woods, meadow and gardens. These all contribute to the unusual and diverse wildlife one is able to experience on a daily basis at the park.

Please join me in posting your sightings, photos, news or thoughts. Let me know in the comments section and though new to me, we'll figure out how to set you up.